The new cultivar is a product of chance discovery. The new variety was discovered as a chance seedling emerging among an outdoor field planting of several cultivars of Tilia americana trees. The inventor discovered this seedling in 1985 at a commercial nursery in Reeseville, Wis. The inventor observed the chance seedling for some years, making a selection of this new tree in 1991.
Asexual reproduction of the new cultivar ‘KROMM’ was first performed during 1993 at a commercial nursery in Reeseville, Wis. This was conducted by the conventional commercial practice of a chip bud graft onto Tilia americana seedling rootstock. Subsequent propagation of three generations has shown that the unique features of this cultivar are stable and have been reproduced true to type in successive generations.